Saint John's returns to MIAC play by hosting Saint Mary's at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, at the Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud. The two teams complete the series at 7:05 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, in Winona.

LIVE COVERAGE
-Thursday, Jan. 23 (in St. Cloud): Listen Live (WBHR-660 AM/95.7 FM) | Live Stats | Live Video

-Saturday, Jan. 25 (in Winona): Listen Live (WBHR-660 AM/95.7 FM) | Live Stats | Live Video

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John's (6-9, 3-3 MIAC) dropped a pair of high-scoring, non-conference games last weekend at the Municipal Athletic Complex (MAC) in St. Cloud.

Wisconsin-Eau Claire 6, Saint John's 4 (Jan. 17)
The two teams broke a 1-1 stalemate by scoring six goals in the second period, including five (UWEC, 3-2) over a 2:18 span. Dayne Hoyord gave the Blugolds a 1-0 lead 8:28 in, but senior captain Matt DeRosa (Alpharetta, Ga.) tied it for SJU with his third goal of the season 42 seconds later. He intercepted an errant crossing pass, skated up the right boards and faded to the top of the left faceoff circle before snapping a wrister to the far post for his 18th career tally.

Charlie Erickson gave the lead back to UWEC 11:49 into the second period before the five-goal flurry gave the visitors a 5-3 lead. 

Sophomore forward Jackson Bisson (Edina, Minn.) tied the game at 2-2 with his second goal of the season and fifth of his career with 4:38 remaining in the second. Eau Claire answered, however, with a pair of goals 33 seconds apart – Eli Reimer and (16:27) and Colin Stein (17:00 on the power play) – for a 4-2 lead. 

Sophomore forward Chris Kernan (Maple Grove, Minn.) cut the deficit to 4-3 with his fifth goal of the year, and fourth in the last three games, 19 seconds after Stein's tally. UWEC was not done, however, as Reimer netted his second goal of the game 21 seconds later.

SJU looked to have scored again, to make it 5-4, with 56 seconds left in the frame but the goal was disallowed due to the net coming off. Sophomore Jackson Borst (Edina, Minn.) attempted a wraparound backhander from behind the net and the UWEC goaltender knocked the net off as the puck crossed the goal line.

The call became critical in the third period as senior Garrett Smith (Eden Prairie, Minn.) made it 5-4 – officially – with his second goal of the season and 20th career point with 5:54 to play.

Reimer ended the scoring by completing the hat trick with an empty-net goal with 28 seconds remaining.

Junior goaltender Jon Howe (Chanhassen, Minn.) made 19 saves in the loss. Senior goaltender Bailey Huber (Mahtomedi, Minn.) relieved him in the third period and stopped all six shots faced.

SJU out-shot UWEC 14-7 in the third period and 33-31 in the game, but went 0-for-4 on the power play against NCAA Division III's top penalty kill.

No. 12 Wisconsin-Stevens Point 6, Saint John's 5 (Jan. 18)
A pair of sophomore forwards from Edina, Jackson Bisson and Borst, had big games for the Johnnies. Bisson tallied his first collegiate hat trick, including a pair of goals with Huber on the bench in the final minute of play, and Borst registered four points (2g/2a).

The Pointers broke open a 4-3 lead with goals from Chris Engelbert (3:38) and Matthew Falls (9:56) in the first half of the third period, but Bisson made it 6-4 with 51 seconds remaining and added another to complete the hat trick with 10 seconds on the clock.

SJU out-shot UWSP 43-38, including a 33-24 margin over the final two periods.
 
Fletcher Anderson gave Stevens Point an early 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 3:24 into the game. The Pointers entered the game 10th in NCAA Division III at 28.6 percent (18-for-63) on the man advantage this season.

Borst tied the game three minutes later on a pretty one-timer from classmate Logan Lyke (Medina, Minn.), but Blake Norris gave the lead back to UWSP with 11:22 left in the opening period.

Both teams exchanged a pair of goals in the second period. Nico Chmelevski opened the scoring halfway (10:03) through and Bisson netted his first of the day 2:52 later.  Falls lit the lamp 29 seconds after Bisson's tally and Borst tallied his second of the game with 2:49 remaining in the period.

3 HAT TRICKS: Bisson's hat trick on Saturday against nationally ranked Wisconsin-Stevens Point was the Johnnies' third this season, joining Kernan (Jan. 10 at Northland, Wis.) and senior forward Spencer Rudrud (Nov. 22 vs. St. Olaf). The last time three different Johnnies recorded a hat trick in the same season was 2000-01: John Konrad (pure hat trick, Nov. 10, 2000 at St. Thomas); Shane Taylor (Dec. 16, 2000 at Northland, Wis.); and Jake Froiland (Jan. 20, 2001 vs. Gustavus Adolphus). The last time SJU had three hat tricks in a season occurred in 2021-22, all by Lewis Crosby '24.

STAT COMPARISONS
Scoring Offense
4. SMU, 3.00 gpg. (3.40 overall)
5. SJU, 2.83 gpg. (2.80 overall)

GAA
2. SMU, 2.41 (2.76 overall)
3. SJU, 2.63 (2.98 overall)

Power Play
1. SMU, 37.5 percent/6-16 (30.2 percent/16-53 overall) *No. 4 in Division III
t4. SJU, 16.7 percent/2-12 (11.9 percent/5-42 overall)

Penalty Kill
3. SJU, 85.7 percent/12-14 (87.8 percent/36-41 overall) *No. 10 in Division III
7. SMU, 81.0 percent/17-21 (81.3 percent/39-48 overall)

A LOOK AT THE CARDINALS: Saint Mary's (7-7-1, 3-2-1 MIAC) saw its losing skid slip to four games with a pair of overtime defeats – 2-1 to Northland (Wis.) and 4-3 to Wisconsin-River Falls – last weekend in Winona. Junior forward Colin Tushie leads the team with 21 points (7g/14a), while freshman forward Joona Juntunen is close behind with 19 (5g/14a). Senior forward Nathan Solis had a team-best eight goals. Senior (6-foot-6) goaltender AJ Ruskowski has all 15 decisions in net with a 2.81 GAA and a .909 save percentage (410 saves).

LAST SEASON'S MEETINGS: The Johnnies and Cardinals split the regular-season series for the third-straight year in 2023-24.

at Saint Mary's 5, Saint John's 3 (Feb. 1, 2024)
SJU outshot Saint Mary's by a 44-24 margin but went 0-for-4 on the power play in a 5-3 loss in Winona. 1. Tushie gave SMU a 1-0 lead with a 2-on-1 goal 11:14 into the game and Jack Vaughan gave the home team a two-goal cushion off a defensive-zone turnover with 2:06 remaining in the first period.

The second period belonged to SJU, however, as the visitors scored three goals with an 18-5 shot advantage in the frame. Sophomore forward Jacob McPartland (Victoria, Minn.) cut the Johnnies' deficit in half with his fourth goal of the season 2:01 into the second, but Bud Winter gave the Cardinals a two-goal lead again with a power-play goal 1:09 later. 

SMU's power play entered the game last in the MIAC at 5.9 percent (2-for-34) in conference play and went 2-for-2 Thursday night. SJU, meanwhile, was No. 12 in NCAA Division III on the penalty kill at 88.3 percent (68-for-77).

Senior forward Justin Thompson (Woodbury, Minn.) was denied on an attempt after he skated in on net halfway through the second period (10:27), but defenseman Jack Olsen '24 charged up the slot and snuck the rebound past the SMU goaltender to make it 3-2. The goal was Olsen's fourth of the season and eighth of his career.

Junior defenseman Michael Spinner (Prior Lake, Minn.) tied the game with a seeing-eye wrister in traffic, his first goal of the season, with 4:29 left in the second. All three of Spinner's career goals are against Saint Mary's.

Kellen Tharaldson scored what proved to be the game-winning goal 5:31 into the third period on a shot from the right boards. 

With Huber off the ice in an attempt to tally the game-tying goal, Rudrud (Eden Prairie, Minn.) was whistled for a cross-checking penalty in the offensive zone (in front of the net) with 48 seconds remaining. Tushie then sealed the game with an empty-net, power-play goal with seven seconds on the clock. Huber finished with 19 saves.

The Cardinals, like their power play, took the ice last in the MIAC on the penalty kill at 75 percent (27-for-36) in league games, but SJU went 0-for-4, including 24 seconds with a 5-on-3 in the third period.

at Saint John's 4, Saint Mary's 2 (Feb. 3, 2024)
The Johnnies built a 2-0 lead with a pair of first-period goals. Forward Lewis Crosby '24 started the game's scoring when he buried a pretty one-timer from Spinner with 4:09 left in the first period. The tally was Crosby's third of the season and 27th of his SJU career.

Thompson then made it a two-goal game with his third goal of the semester at the 18:30 mark on another feed from Spinner.

Winter cut the deficit in half for Saint Mary's 5:04 into the second period, but junior defenseman Conner Couet (St. Michael, Minn.) made his first collegiate goal count in a big way, shorthanded, to give the Johnnies a 3-1 cushion with 2:08 left in the frame.

The Cardinals countered once again on a goal from Jackson Nauss 2:21 into the third period, but again the Johnnies answered. This time it was junior defenseman Mason Campbell (Rosemount, Minn.), on a delayed penalty, for his fourth goal of the season and 10th of his career with 12:54 left to play.

Howe made 26 saves to improve to 6-3-2 this season. SJU posted a 36-28 advantage in shots, including a 10-4 margin in the third period. Both teams went 0-for-4 on the power play.

SERIES HISTORY: The Johnnies are 61-32-5 against the Cardinals since the 1981-82 season, including a 24-9-2 record under the direction of head coach Doug Schueller (since 2008-09). SJU has won 34 of the last 47 meetings overall (34-11-2 record), but is only 8-6-1 in the last 15 meetings at the HBNHC.